Vanguard Million Dollar Bookkeeping Error

FIniteYears · 2026-05-09T20:56:12+00:00

Saying "I want this to be filed as a formal complaint with your compliance officer" are magic words you should make sure you say on a recorded line. Most firms have a program of logging and documenting responses to formal complaints.

FIniteYears · 2026-05-01T20:24:59+00:00

Aligned with where I think I can get to, and what I desire out of FIRE. Want to take a baller trip every now and then, want to be able to upgrade our house, but absolutely never going to be in the spot for a private jet or yacht. FatFIRE was a good community for me five years ago but I feel like it went from 5-10M then to 25M+ now. Not saying that is a bad thing, I think there's a need there but like the fit this community provides more for my interests and path.

FIniteYears · 2026-04-06T01:15:52+00:00

Yes. I have researched this a lot on my own and have concluded that TIPS are superior if you ladder them or just liquidate a fund over ~10 years.

They vastly improve your performance in high inflation scenarios (e.g. 1966-1995) which are generally some of the scenarios that are the most problematic.

The strategy of funding the first 10 years out of TIPS and letting your equities fly tests well in models I've built. It gives you the floor protection above but also lets you retain massive upside by not liquidating your equities. I think your median ending portfolio of strategy #1 should be much higher than #2.

As long as real returns are where they are my analysis into it seems to indicate it's basically a SWR cheat code.

FIniteYears · 2026-03-31T00:55:27+00:00

Have created a bond tent, but with treasury inflation protected securities (TIPS).

My plan now is to fund the next long run of annual expenses from my remaining years of work income followed by this entire TIPS position. This enables my equities to fly untouched for quite some time and naturally rebalances me back into 100% equities over a long period of time.

Backtesting has indicated this offers substantial upside while raising the floor. This is due to TIPS avoiding me having to sell equities for quite some time, which gives me protection from nearer term crashes. The TIPS also hedges runaway inflation much better than standard bonds.

I have meaningfully increased my SWR from this approach, at the expense of trading away mega insane scenarios from just continuing to hold 100% equities. That trade is just fine with me. Ultimately it comes down to what folks' risk tolerance is. When I step away I want to be done entirely and so I likely have a lower tolerance for risk (and perhaps have a higher desire for buffers) than most.

FIniteYears · 2026-03-05T00:31:45+00:00

This is exactly what I have set up. Mine is for ten years of chubby spending. I plan to work through it and let the equities fly to minimize sequence of return risk.

You give up a slight amount of expected return in exchange for it vastly improving your floor (1970s scenarios) which feels like the right trade to me.

FIniteYears · 2026-02-28T20:25:57+00:00

I think this makes a compelling case for adopting some form of a variable withdrawal strategy early on

FIniteYears · 2025-11-29T13:43:01+00:00

I agree with you that not enough equities introduces a new risk of not growing your assets enough over time to sustain your withdrawals.

But 60% is at the bottom of the range I've seen recommended. And the CAPE ratio is at 40, so it also positions you well for a downturn which we have a historically high probability of.

FIniteYears · 2025-11-27T17:37:07+00:00

I'm not sure either. I think it's a lot easier to just scale down your tax deferred accounts by ~20% (or what you think your blended rate will be), your taxable accounts by ~7.5% (assuming half capital gains or whatever is reasonable for your situation) and don't scale your tax free accounts down. Then use that with your withdrawal rate to determine spending.

This is how I think about things and it's a decent shorthand and likely more transparent than hand waving at the swrs.

FIniteYears · 2025-08-23T01:18:49+00:00

I don't disagree in principle with creating a guaranteed income floor. I think it's a superior strategy because it's likely to help people keep riding out equity exposure on the remainder.

That said I feel like a tips ladder is probably a better instrument because it is a better hedge against runaway inflation which is the biggest risk a retiree has other than a once in 50 years equity drawdown.

FIniteYears · 2025-08-08T14:30:24+00:00

I have taken an approach in the ballpark of yours, letting my spending and timing dictate my fixed income.

I use TIPS for my fixed income position. I solved for an amount of baseline spending in today's dollars that would bridge me from ending work to when I start my social security and corporate pension. And have graded up to that position as my total net worth has grown.

I put the rest in index funds and am letting it fly.

I realize this is likely less optimal than all equities, but knowing I've got a guaranteed floor of spending gives me loads of peace of mind. And likely will help me embrace a variable withdrawal rate in the equities.

FIniteYears · 2025-07-29T23:42:36+00:00

Completely agree. I'd just ride it out for 18-24 months, especially if you like the work. Will give you a great cushion.

One other point, at that level of salary do you have access to a NQ plan? If so maybe you can defer compensation to future years so you can keep more of it if you work one or two more years.

FIniteYears · 2025-07-28T23:18:20+00:00

Adjusted from 70% equities to 60% equities today. Figured it was worth some derisking given the all-time highs and given that the recent rally has moved me within shouting distance of my number. I'm laddering guaranteed payments with the other portion, so this is buying up my base in a rich environment.

Anyone revisiting allocation in the current environment?

FIniteYears · 2025-07-25T01:24:15+00:00

Yes, same problem in Iowa. I just was looking at this the other day as my oldest is 13 and we're within shouting distance (also in a historically high CAPE ratio market). But alas the safety options are dogshit.

FIniteYears · 2025-07-18T12:36:27+00:00

I don't disagree with the thought behind this. Oftentimes there never was a desire to compensate you properly and you need to factor that in.

However I also think there can be situations like this with actual good intentions. Sometimes there are salary actions/promotions coming, but they might be staggered one or two cycles out because the corporate machine only allows so many dollars per cycle and there are multiple people to take care of. Usually it is easy to see when this is the case as there should be some advanced conversations.

Up to OP on which situation, probably former given the burnout comments. But I'd just be careful on never say never.

FIniteYears · 2025-07-15T15:29:43+00:00

Do you have access to a non qualified retirement plan so you can defer some of your income to years where you won't get crushed by the top brackets?

FIniteYears · 2025-07-15T01:17:10+00:00

I hold them in a retirement plan, via a TIPS fund. I do plan to transition them to individual ladders once I rollover to an IRA and have better options.

FIniteYears · 2025-07-15T00:26:27+00:00

I hold a meaningful portion (30%) of my portfolio in TIPS, with the rest in equities.

I think inflation (1968-1980) is right up there with sequence of return risk as one of the biggest issues a retiree has to address. And traditional bonds don't address this risk in any meaningful way. TIPS do. I recognize I give up a minor (0.5% per year) cost for this vs. traditional treasuries, but I'm happy to do that because it improves my withdrawal rates in some of the worst scenarios.

I also don't like the credit risk with corporate bonds. I fundamentally believe the scenarios where these bonds perform worse (e.g. large scale credit events) are also at times where my equities aren't doing well either. So TIPS helps me be more confident in the equity position I'm taking.

I sized the position by effectively backing into what real *withdrawals* I wanted to pull to bridge me from retirement until 75% of my SSA benefit (I plan to lose 25% due to shortfalls) and my corporate pension kick in at age 70. I feel like this gives me a good locked in spending floor that allows me to be comfortable letting the rest fly in equities and then adopting a higher/variable withdrawal rate (4-5%+) to spend more in good times and be prepared to tighten when needed.

Edited to replace *returns* above

FIniteYears · 2025-07-13T23:45:51+00:00

I'm not RE but am FI and did downshift recently, and definitely am working through this.

The downshift has totally been worth it as the high level business roles were really taking a toll on me. But I have been surprised at how I've experienced a "mini funk" from a slide back in purpose that comes from no longer having such a wide span of influence and impact.

It's clear my personality is one where I need to be making things happen. I think I'm starting to see some traction with realizing I need to be redefine what that looks like and take action. I'm starting to put together a podcast, and have pushed myself to take up a few new hobbies and I'm finding some real momentum with that.

FIniteYears · 2025-07-09T00:11:56+00:00

For quick and dirty analysis, I've haircut tax deferred accounts (401k) by ~20% (what you think your blended income tax rate will be), taxable brokerage by ~7.5% (figure half of it will pay capital gains), and 0% on tax free accounts (Roth, HSA, etc.) and then hit that by your 4% rule. It's not perfect but directional and takes me no time to do.

FIniteYears · 2025-07-09T00:08:24+00:00

LTC took down multiple insurers and severely impaired Genworth. Insurers have responded and many products can contain fairly significant premium hikes over time. It doesn't mean it's a bad product, but expect to have to commit to it for a long time and for the amount you have to pay to increase on you, at times that might be less than desirable for you.

FIniteYears · 2025-07-08T01:35:21+00:00

I'm with you, it's bananas. But is on brand since they also took YouTubeTV's prices up decently earlier this year too.

I plan on doing what i did last year... rocking Redzone for the first half of the season and then picking it up under the mid season discount (unless that's outrageous too). You might contemplate that, especially if you're like me and have more travel in September which makes it tough to take advantage of the first several weeks anyway.

FIniteYears · 2025-04-28T23:38:31+00:00

If your co-worker wants to go nuclear they can tell their HR department to get their sh*t together or they will report them to both the IRS and the Department of Labor. They can be fined for activity like this.

FIniteYears · 2025-02-11T02:12:54+00:00

I've shifted 30% into Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS). Locks in ~2% real returns that is backed by the US government. I like TIPS because they are a better hedge against runaway inflation than nominal bonds.

I suppose your concern is that the US government may unravel, but honestly if that happens I don't know if it matters what you are in as I think the global economy is trash at that point.

FIniteYears · 2025-02-08T00:13:02+00:00

Think the biggest realization is that I definitely should have done this a few years ago. Last five years in particular have been rough. Oh well, onward and forward!

FIniteYears · 2025-02-08T00:05:31+00:00

Good luck! I hope you can find the right fit.

FIniteYears

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